When a user sleeps on the pillow, the neck and head of the user are comfortably supported by and rested on a pillow. Conventionally, various pillows are available according to materials and functionalities. For example, a hard pillow, a soft pillow, a pillow filled with functional materials such as medicinal herbs, and the like are used.
Because humans sleep for ⅓ of their life, comfortable sleep is very important. The most important thing for comfortable sleep is the pillow. It is generally known that most of shoulder discomfort, snoring, headache, insomnia, cervical disc problem, a forward head posture, etc. are caused by misuse of a pillow or by selecting an inappropriate pillow.
A conventional pillow is too hard, soft, high or low so that the head and the neck can freely move on the pillow instead of being comfortably placed thereon, causing a shoulder line to be crooked.
Also, the human body has a forward curved structure in a portion where the head and the upper cervical vertebrae are joined and has the center of mass biased forward more than the cervical vertebrae, so that the muscle of the occipital and the lower occipital is easily tensed.
Further, the stress of life, poor posture, various injuries, etc. cause this portion to be more severely tensed than other portions, and block occipital nerves, vertebral arteries, etc., thereby providing pressure on the lower occipital.
Then, many nerves passing through the jugular foramen are continuously pressed, and thus the muscle controlled thereby is tensed, so that an autonomous nervous system for maintaining the homeostasis undergoes a functional disorder, and in severe cases, the endocranium surrounding the encephalon is also tensed, causing constitutional symptom.
Thus, treatment for relaxing the tensed muscle and soft tissue of the occipital and the lower occipital is very important.
Conventionally, such tension on the occipital and the lower occipital has been inconveniently and manually relaxed through inconvenient medical treatment by a practitioner such as a manual therapist, a physical therapist, etc.
Examples of the medical treatment include cranial base release, CV4, and the like in cranosacral therapy (CST).
However, such treatment requires a practitioner to lift up a patient's head by his/her fingers until tension exerted on the occipital and the lower occipital is relaxed, this kind of treatment requires considerable physical exertion and long time, even though the treatment is very good for health, and thus it is difficult to apply this kind of treatment to many patients.
To solve such a problem, a pillow-shaped device is suggested to relieve tension exerted on the occipital and the lower occipital when a patent lies on the back using the device as a pillow.
However, such a device is used only for taking a short rest and is difficult to use during sleep. That is, this type of device cannot provide comfort when used for a long period of time and does not promote circulation of a cerebrospinal fluid by effectively and softly relaxing the cranial base, muscle of the lower occipital including the upper cervical vertebrae, and the occipital duramater.
Therefore, there is a need for a functional orthopedic pillow for a sound sleep, which can assist in circulation of a cerebrospinal fluid by effectively and softly relaxing the cranial base, muscle of the lower occipital including the upper cervical vertebrae, and the occipital duramater.